Friday, January 9, 2004
 As promised...Jesus Malverde. Finally. I bought this at the border last week in Tijuana, to the HUGE embarrassment of both my mother and S. We held up traffic a bit, which meant I paid more than I should have for this Jesus Malverde bust/piggy bank (yes! There's a slot in the back of his head!!). I just couldn't resist. As I said a while back, Jesus Malverde is one of the new saints, one that's not ordained by the Church but manages to have a huge cultural presence regardless. He's considered the patron saint of narcotraffickers and his shrine is in the heart of Mexico's drug trade, Culiacan, Sinaloa. He was a turn-of-the-century Robin Hood/bandit who was hung in 1909 by the governor of Sinaloa, the legend says, and since then has been the saint to appeal to for safe passage across the border if you're carrying drugs. I first read about Jesus in Sam Quinones' book, True Tales from Another Mexico, and later in Elijah Wald's Narcocorrido, a fantastic book about the corrido, the most popular music in Mexico (which represents the largest sales in latin music, BTW), songs that recount the histories of bandits, revolutionary heroes, and like its counterpart, gangsta rap, the lives of drug traffickers. Wald compiled a CD with many of the songs he discusses in the book and also has the lyrics available on his website. (Read the chapter about Jesus from Quinones' book here.) Drug traffickers and others go to Jesus' shrine in Culiacan to offer not money or candles but corridos, songs. A band will sing commissioned songs and standards in honor of Jesus after a successful run up north. You can read more about Jesus and the shrine on Frontline's Drug Wars site here and here. The most famous Mexican drug cartel is run by the Arellano-Felix family, a cartel that was featured in Frontline's Drug Wars special of several years ago. Posters were hanging up at the border crossing with pictures of nine of the Felix brothers and a bounty of $5 million for information leading to their arrests. I guess they've given quite a bit to Jesus' shrine...what else would explain their eluding capture all these years? The customs agent didn't ask us about the Malverde bust in the back seat; I suppose we weren't the first, or the last, to by a road-side plaster saint. If you want to read more about Jesus Malverde, a MIT student has an excellent archive of articles on his website here. We're working hard at loading up Jesus with all the pennies we have laying around the house. Perhaps it will give us a little luck in our next border passage (no, we're definitely not drug traffickers!), or help us capture a Felix brother or two and collect that 5 million dollars! 
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